PRESIDENT KUFUOR must have stirred the honest nest when it comes to the Rawlingses.
In the wake of her husband’s description last week of the Kufuor administration as a corrupt one being shielded by sections of the local and international media, the once- feared first lady and doting wife of the former president, Mrs. Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, has also dropped a bomb of her own.
This time, the tune from the same house her husband sang from, is that President John Agyekum Kufuor is a crafty dictator, who is depriving the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party of airtime on radio and TV.
Worse still, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Government of Ghana, led by the current Chairman of the African Union (AU), constantly pesters the opposition, noted Mrs Rawlings in an interview with the Inter Press Service (IPS) media last week.
The former first lady description of President Kufuor is captured in a news report filed by Moyiga Nduru from Johannesburg, South Africa, over the weekend, following an interview granted IPS, an African news wire service, by Mrs Rawlings.
“We have a subtle dictator in Ghana. (President John) Kufuor’s party, for example, doesn’t provide airtime on TV and radio to the opposition. Government agents constantly harass the opposition. There’s no level playing field in Ghana,” Mrs Agyemang-Rawlings said in the interview with IPS.
The report, titled “Africa: Democracy Takes Root in Some Countries, Falters in Others”, also suggested that Mrs Rawlings believes Ghana’s democracy is on a downslide, despite global appraisal that the country is one of the few states with a thriving democracy on the African continent.
The report also suggests that the former ruling party and current opposition NDC has a problem with Ghana’s democracy being extolled.
“The West African nation is considered one of the most democratic on the continent, something that irritates its main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress,” noted the IPS in its report, citing an unnamed Ghanaian, who was quick to point out that Ghana’s democracy is in a better shape than under Mrs Rawlings’ husband.
“There is democracy in Ghana. You can say whatever you want and no security agents will harass or arrest you like during Rawlings’ days,” the unnamed Ghanaian is reported to have said.
It is unclear when and where Mrs Rawlings granted the interview but hints in the report suggest that the interview took place at a three–day international conference in South Africa, which ended Friday.
In his explanation for not participating in Ghana’s 50th anniversary celebrations last week, the former President also labelled the Kufuor administration in critical terms, suggesting that the administration feeds on political torture, killings and corruption.
“Ghana is faced with pervasive corruption at all levels, missed opportunities for genuine progress, nepotism, tribalism and known cases of political torture and killings.”
In Rawlings’ view, the government is even terrorising dissenting opinion.
“I repeat my criticism of certain international powers, as well as sections of the international and local media, who have tried many times to gloss over or cover up the difficulties we face in the country today, all in a bid to whitewash the present government. They will, in the long term, be doing the people of Ghana a great disservice. To them, I say that I cannot relinquish my present unshakeable belief that Ghana is merely being made a “show-case” whiles so many people are being denied the basics of life and their freedoms but cannot find the courage to speak up because they have been terrorised into a state of subjugation. A planned peaceful vigil and procession by followers and admirers of Kwame Nkrumah to commemorate the anniversary has even been disallowed and threatened by this government.”
